Celebrate your Legs

Some of us are weak kneed, knock kneed, knuckle kneed,
dreaming of much nicer knees, knees that are nobble-free,
knees that never creak, or no knees at all.
We’d not need knees if we were lacking legs,
but if our legs dropped off we’d be heading for a fall;
so we all want legs, and without our knees
our poor old legs would be stiff as pegs,
good for little more than standing tall.

The shape and the size and the state of our thighs
may be sore to the eyes, but a word to the wise –
some of us may agonise, may disguise or try to downsize,
thinking them too wide or too pied, but they help us to stride
down the roadside, hillside, wayside, on any side and every side,
waggling our backsides, or gliding like a bride.

Shins are pretty thin, their bones sit next to skin
sensitive to irritating scraping and scratching,
low furniture abusing them, banging them and bruising them,
at every opportunity, but they’re streamlined for sprinting.

Calves are often floppy, they may be thick or thin,
they often swell in places where you want them to go in.
If they get too flabby our jeans may be a squeeze,
while skirts can swing and rise up in a sudden gusty breeze,
revealing all our bulgy bits, and that is not much fun,
but the chub will turn to muscle if we regularly run.

Ankles are all angles, and at risk from hockey stick,
which with a careless swing, can deal a painful clip,
they’re delicate, and sensitive to every graze and bruise,
and when ambushed by a table leg, they usually lose.
But they’re worth all the pain and the occasional sprain,
as the moment they recover, they’re in action again,
helping you to balance and lifting up your feet,
while twisting round to steer you up and down the street.

Legs may be lanky, flabby, lean or even beautiful –
however they may look, they are usually dutiful,
taking you to places far too narrow for a car;
from bathroom into bedroom – then to ballroom or to bar.
They’re useful on a bicycle if you want the wheels to turn,
and if you didn’t have them it would cause you some concern.
You cannot do the can-can without a working pair,
and for roamin’ in the gloamin’ there’s nothing to compare
with your legs, whether hairy, freckled, ugly or glamorous —
and they prove to be an asset when yer man is getting amorous;
You can wrap ’em round or lay ’em flat or bend ’em at the knees,
or contort them in whatever way the two of you may please.

To celebrate your legs, play some music, have a dance,
jump and hop and wiggle while you still have got the chance.

I wrote this poem a few months ago for a friend, to include in a book she was writing about legs, which has just gone to print.

Oh Jane you’re making me giggle and wince with pain at the same time. Me and my legs have been through a lot together. Plenty of those sporting injuries, during my younger sporting days, to my ankles and my knees. However the last seventeen years, I’ve put my little legs through some arduous times !! My Stroke in 2000, left me with a funny right leg, but after 9 months of intensive rehab’, I suppose I was nearly ok. In 2007, May 9th, I severely broke my left ankle (At golf, and that’s another story), requiring metal plate, screws and bolts, then in 2008, May 9th, I broke my right ankle (At golf, and that’s another story). I don’t play golf on May 9th anymore !!. And over the last 5 years, I’ve had a right knee operation, and some more repair work on my left ankle !! Needless to say my joints now ache with arthritis and it aches to walk, but I try to walk every day, as they say, if you don’t use them, you’ll lose them. Hahaha, I hope your legs are in good shape, because I think I’ll needed someone to carry me over the finish line !!

Your poor old legs have certainly been in the wars. My legs are fine; solid muscle from constantly walking at break-neck speed from A to B (few folk can keep up with me), so I’ll happily hoist you over my shoulder and carry you wherever you like. 🙂

How did you guess they were my weak point? I’ve syffered frozen shoulders both left and right – five times in all – and was even told I would have limited movement in them for the rest of my life, but living alone seems to have cured them. xx

Ah, the weight of a man off your shoulders, .. i fell asleep again….I’ve been so tired this week. But i had a nice afternoon yesterday, went to watch my mate at a music gig, and got invited to recite a few of my poems, which was a thrill for me.

I’ve had two poems set to music, one by a fellow blogger, dairyofasoulwriter, and by my mate, Terry Fielding, who I was with yesterday, he’s a wonderful singer/songwriter. I’ll see if I’m clever enough to send them to you.

Those were the days my friend,
we thought they’d never end,
we’d sing and dance forever and a day,
We’d live the life we choose,
we’d fight and never lose,
Those were the days,
oh yes those were the days.

And geniuses they were. I’m Melbourne now working again !! I started writing a poem this morning before I left, using a lot of the titles to their songs, I was enjoying how it was progressing. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish it off tonight.

The reader is so hard to catch up on, but I’m trying not to worry too much, and learning to pick and chose the articles I would like to read. And I always try to read my fav bloggers, You !!, and about 20 others, but even that’s hard if I’m working a lot. It’s my lunch break at the moment.

I figured that. It’s a great quality, and one that I might have stood by throughout my life, had I not suffered from low self-esteem which presented as paranoia, so I believed that people only bothered with me because they felt sorry for me.
Thanks mainly to blogging, I’m over that.

there was (gasp) a poet out running (gasp)
recorded new poems (gasp) so cunning
(gasping)
using their cellphone (gasp)
you could tell by the tone (Huuuh)
not sat at their (gasp) desk whilst punning (whooosing)

Haha – nice limerick. When I’m out walking, rhymes often play in my head. I think it’s something to do with the rhythm of the motion. I always keep a notebook handy, but maybe I should try that method – the gasps could always be edited out 🙂

I am knock-kneed and pigeon-toed. Despite the bullying I had go endure, I am more lucky than my sister who had two MPFL surgeries (one for each knee) because of her high patella problem. I trip on my feet while she dislocates her knees even just by standing. She’s well now and has been travelling a lot! We’re still way more lucky than a lot of other people. That’s why we love our legs even more no matter how imperfect they are.

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Welcome to my blog. Here I record my thoughts and inspiration, mostly translated into poetry of one sort or another - provided I consider them publishable. You'll learn that I keep few secrets; I'm hot on honesty and openness. Like most people, I'm prone to many moods, and all of them are represented on these pages. Sometimes you'll find me happy, while at other times I may be sad. I may be funny or dark, proud or shameful, kind or cruel, nostalgic, frivolous, reflective, angry or just plain silly - whatever I feel is revealed in my posts.

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